20. The Alien Kid on the Streets
It was early in the afternoon. Through two separate private YouTube streams on an ultra-wide monitor, Rippa watched Buttons and Miss Pendrake emerge from the bathroom in the train station.
Rippa herself wasn’t live yet. She needed the girls to be ready in place. No way she was going to show her viewers two camera feeds suddenly teleporting to the train station from the palace.
She had moved the stream to the afternoon, because her usual time, nine in the evening, was too close to Buttons’ bedtime. Besides, she did not feel comfortable sending the kid out on her behalf so late in the evening.
Rippa was at her streaming desk, facing the wall in Goggles’ office. She was doing a final check, switching between the two camera feeds in OBS. Goggles himself sat at his desk behind Rippa, watching the feeds from the two cams and Rippa’s ‘Stream starting soon’ countdown on his triple-monitor setup.
Buttons and Miss Pendrake first headed straight to an ATM in the main hall of the station. Rippa had talked with Goggles, and he had reluctantly downgraded Miss Pendrake’s AMEX Centurion to something more casual. The young bodyguard was also armed with a debit card in Buttons’ name, which she was now inserting into the ATM.
“Didn’t know you had an actual bank account,” Rippa commented over voice chat.
“Goggles takes care of everything. So nice,” Buttons replied. The kid was tiptoeing and watching Miss Pendrake operate the ATM.
Rippa took a sip from her soda, but almost choked. In the Hayasaka-cam, the ATM screen was showing a balance that made Rippa do a double take.
365,000 dollars.
“What the f- hell?” She turned to face Goggles. “Goggles!”
The butler raised his head above the monitors. “Yes, Miss Rippa?”
“That’s too much money for a kid!”
“Hmm… Is that so?” was his response, but Rippa felt he was brushing it off.
Rippa turned back to the monitors. Miss Pendrake withdrew forty dollars, which now seemed a ridiculously low amount compared to what Rippa had just seen.
“Wow, money. What can I buy with this?” Buttons asked.
“I dunno, probably a dozen hot dogs or something,” answered Rippa halfheartedly. She was still struggling with the sheer scale of her friends’ existence.
“Ooh, that’s a lot! I’m rich!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
The countdown was nearing its end.
“Buttons, Miss Pendrake,” Goggles said over the voice chat. “Remain human. And no Caliburn.”
Rippa chuckled to herself. ‘Yeah, that worked super great last time.’
The countdown hit zero, but as usual, Rippa waited a few more seconds for her chat to play out the ritual.
‘She’s late.’
‘She hates us!’
Rippa switched the scene. The main section now showed the Buttons-cam feed. In the bottom right corner, Rippin’ Rippa the VTuber.
“Ripripripriprip-, oops, I’m muted, hang on.” Rippa unmuted herself. “Ripripripriprip! Hello, chat!” and then she immediately yelled at Buttons, “Buttons! Move your camera away from her boobs!”
“Huh? I’m not doing anything?”
“Just… either step back, or look the other way,” Rippa sighed. ‘Great start.’ She softened her voice. “Buttons, please don’t stand too close to Miss Pen-, Hayasaka, and look in her direction, OK? If you do that, we are not gonna have great views.”
‘Rippa hates us!’ Two seconds into the stream, chat was already having a great time.
“OK, chat,” Rippa addressed her viewers, “as you might have already guessed, my friends Buttons and Hayasaka are going to be our eyes on the street. Buttons, say hello.”
Buttons cleared her throat and then said, “Everybody, everybody, make sure to like, comment, and subscribe to Max Effort Clips. That’s right. Max Effort Clips. And hit the notification bell.”
A user named Max Effort Clips, a well-known VTuber clipper who had a symbiotic relationship with Rippa’s channel, immediately responded with a Super Chat. ‘Thank you, Buttolls!’ All while Rippa and her chat were dying laughing.
And with that, the stream truly began.
***
Things ran smoothly. Rippa knew the city very well and directed Buttons to places of interest, often pausing long enough to give chat a story or two about her experience in that particular location.
After about an hour into the stream, Buttons really did come across a hot dog cart.
“Do you want some hot dogs?” Rippa asked.
“Yes! Yes!”
So the two girls ordered a hot dog and a can of cola each, but allowed Rippa’s chat to decide on mustard and ketchup. The vendor seemed to have interacted with IRL streamers before and asked which channel the two were streaming on. Buttons used that opportunity to plug Rippa’s YouTube channel.
Miss Pendrake paid with a twenty-dollar bill and received change in bills and coins. Now, coins were something Buttons was familiar with, and she took a quarter and pocketed it.
The young bodyguard found an empty bench. The two sat down and ate hot dogs in peace, while watching city people walk by, listening to Rippa talking to her chat.
“Hey! Kid!”
Rippa froze.
Somebody was calling Buttons. “And Missy John Wick!” the voice called Miss Pendrake as well.
“Who’s that?” Rippa demanded.
Buttons turned, and Rippa immediately recognized the guy.
“DeAndre!” Buttons greeted excitedly and offered her half-eaten hot dog, which he politely declined.
“What are you two lovely ladies doing here?” asked DeAndre.
He had a wireless microphone in his hand. Behind him, another man was filming the encounter with a phone on a selfie stick.
Buttons was eager to explain. She quickly finished off her hot dog. “We are cameramen for my streamer friend!” She tapped on the camera on her shoulder strap.
“Oh? I have my camera buddy here, too,” DeAndre introduced the man behind him. “He’s Jamal.”
“Hello,” Jamal greeted, still filming.
“Man, you were all over X,” said DeAndre. “Thank God you weren’t hurt.”
“Yeah, bro, that was real rough shit,” Jamal added.
Rippa’s heart was racing. This was no good. “Buttons, be careful!”
Her chat was confused. They were asking who this man was.
“Hey, you two good?” DeAndre went on. “You are not gonna get me banned again, are you?”
“Huh? You are banned?” Buttons was clueless.
“Yeah. I moved to Twitch now.”
“What’s your channel name?”
“The same. DeAndre Underscore Interview.”
Buttons beamed at Jamal’s camera. “Everyone, like and subscribe to D’Andre Underscore Interview!”
DeAndre and his cameraman laughed. His chat was loving this kid.
Miss Pendrake was done with her hot dog, and much to Rippa’s dismay, the four started to walk together, chatting and streaming. Rippa was torn on whether to continue guiding Buttons on where to go, or let her go with the flow and roam with DeAndre. On one hand, her stream was being derailed. But on the other hand, the guy seemed alright, and was actually pretty entertaining.
‘Oh, right,’ Rippa opened a new tab in her browser and visited DeAndre’s Twitch channel. It was not big. About five hundred viewers right now. ‘Probably because he just moved from TikTok,’ Rippa thought. She quickly scanned the chat and was relieved. It seemed DeAndre’s chat was friendly to Buttons and Miss Pendrake.
Rippa had calmed down. She glanced back. Goggles showed no signs of concern. If the butler who could read minds was calm, then there was nothing to worry about regarding DeAndre or the new guy, Jamal. It showed. Miss Pendrake was totally fine with them around.
“So your VTuber friend is reacting to us right now?” DeAndre was asking.
“Yes. Her channel is Rippin’ Rippa.”
DeAndre whipped out his phone and did a quick search. He found Rippa’s channel and showed it to Jamal.
“Hello, Rippa!” DeAndre smiled big and waved before Buttons’ camera. “Your VTuber model is super kawaiii!!!”
And just like that, he became an ally to Rippa’s chat. Chat opened new tabs in their browsers, found DeAndre’s channel, and started spamming emojis and greetings. The other side quickly reciprocated, doing the same.
“Hey, you!” A sharp shriek interrupted the four streamers.
Rippa heard a faint groan coming from Goggles.
The four turned around to find a large girl. She had her phone up, filming them.
“You the racist taco kid, right?”
“Hey, knock it off, sis,” DeAndre got in front of Buttons. “This kid didn’t do nothing wrong.”
“Fuck off, Uncle Tom,” the girl snarled. She pointed at Buttons and shouted for everyone to hear. “This girl racist! She the racist taco girl!” She pushed her phone in closely, trying to get a good shot of Buttons.
DeAndre grabbed Buttons’ hand. “Come on. Let’s go somewhere else.”